Afghan attack was meant to be 26/11 type

NEW DELHI: The Friday morning attack on the Indian consulate in Herat province of Afghanistan by four heavily armed terrorists was launched in 26/11 style with a motive of taking the consulate officials as hostage.

Recoveries made from one of the fidayeens showed that they had supplies for at least three days and enough arsenals to completely destroy the consulate.

ITBP personnel, who repelled the attack killing one of the fidayeens while he was trying to scale the consulate wall, have found that each fidayeen carried dry fruit packets that could help him survive two-three days. Apart from this each carried one AK-47 gun with under-barrel grenade launcher (UBGL), six magazines, 17 rocket propelled grenades and four hand grenades.

"Had they gained entry, with such massive ammunition, they could have completely destroyed the consulate," said a senior ITBP officer. ITBP, which has around 300 personnel guarding five Indian consulates and embassies in Afghanistan, had 26 men guarding the Herat consulate.
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ITBP DG Subhash Goswami said, "One of the fidayeens was killed by our rearguard constables while he was trying to scale the consulate wall. We have recovered dry fruits from his bag and considerable amount of arms and ammunition that he was carrying on his body. The other three terrorists entered into a building adjacent to the consulate and were neutralized by Afghan forces. None of our jawans or the consulate staff was injured."

Goswami said that a general alert regarding a possible attack on consulates in Afghanistan had been received by the force a few weeks ago. "We recently reinforced our strength by 79 more men in the country in view of the threats," said Goswami.

&mdash; Narendra Modi (@narendramodi)May 23, 2014 According to ITBP sources, at around 3.45am Kabul time (4.30am IST), a loud explosion followed by gunshots was heard outside the consulate. This alerted the entire ITBP contingent, led by inspector Manjit Singh, who rushed to secure the periphery. Right then, one of the fidayeens was spotted trying to scale the left wall of the consulate.

"Constables Rakesh and Praveen Kumar shot at him after his bag got stuck in the concertina wires," said Goswami. Sources said, despite suffering gunshot, the fidayeen managed to enter but was neutralized after walking a few steps. The other three fidayeens then entered an adjacent building and started firing, which was replied by the Afghan forces. The encounter continued for good 10 hours before all terrorists were killed.

Sources said that the fidayeen who entered the consulate had been left dead for over four hours on the suspicion of being strapped with an IED. Only after it was ascertained that he was not a suicide bomber, recoveries were made from him